Description
Focused on the hunt for dark matter, this track covers laboratory-based experiments such as direct detection using low-threshold detectors, axion searches, and complementary indirect detection techniques.
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is a dark matter direct detection experiment operating over a kilometre underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, USA. At its core, the LZ detector consists of a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber, with an active volume containing 7 tonnes. This talk will cover the recent world-leading results from the primary LZ search for weakly...
Electron capture (EC) decays of Xe-125 and Xe-127 constitute a known background in dark matter searches with dual phase xenon time projection chambers (TPCs) such as the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment. The signals produced by these processes present a lower charge-to-light ratio compared to β-particle interactions of the same energy, which is attributed to enhanced recombination at the EC site as...
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment is a dual-phase time projection chamber with the primary aim of detecting WIMPs through direct detection methods. Light from scintillation within the detector is collected with arrays of PMTs and is recorded as waveforms in our data. LZ fundamentally relies on our understanding of all the information encoded in these waveforms . It is therefore paramount that we...
Dual-phase xenon time projection chambers (TPCs), such as the one at the core of the LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment, are expected to be well-suited for the search of the neutrinoless double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe. In LZ, this rare-event search is primarily limited by the presence of gamma ray backgrounds in the signal's energy region of interest from the decays of $^{214}$Bi and $^{208}$Tl....
The LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) experiment features a liquid xenon time projection chamber designed to detect weakly interacting massive particles (WIMPs) with exceptional sensitivity. Among its background signals, scintillation-only events are particularly challenging to study due to their poor spatial reconstruction; yet, they play a significant role by contributing to accidental coincidence backgrounds...
While the microphysics of Xenon in dual-phase TPCs is generally well understood, fully characterising the behaviour of nuclear recoils at very small (keV-scale) energies presents a series of challenges that contribute to many uncertainties in this regime. Thanks to its unique ability to calibrate in-situ using low energy deuterium-deuterium (DD) reflector neutrons, LUX-ZEPLIN is well...
LUX-ZEPLIN (LZ) is the world’s most sensitive direct dark matter detector. It is located deep underground at the 4850 ft level at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in Lead, South Dakota. This is a quiet environment, shielded from cosmic rays. LZ utilises 7 tonnes of liquid xenon in a time projection chamber as a target for extremely rare dark matter particle interactions. LZ...
The LZ experiment, located at the Sanford Underground Research Facility in Lead, South Dakota, utilises a dual-phase xenon time projection chamber (TPC) with a 7-ton active volume to detect dark matter candidates. Recently, the LZ experiment announced world-leading sensitivity results in one of the strong candidates for dark matter, Weakly Interacting Massive Particles (WIMPs), based on a...
DarkSide-20k, a 51 t dual-phase Liquid Argon Time Projection Chamber (LAr TPC), is designed to detect dark matter particles, which potentially comprise up to 85% of the universe's matter. Traditionally direct detection experiments focus on velocity and moment-independent interactions (either spin-independent or spin-dependent), which have not yielded positive results, leading to significant...
Dark matter makes up most of the mass content in the universe, yet its nature remains one of the biggest unanswered questions in physics. Many experiments are searching for WIMP-like dark matter directly and exploiting improvements in sensitivity thanks to the Migdal effect, a rare atomic process. However, this process is yet to be observed in nuclear scattering. The MIGDAL experiment aims to...
The future XLZD collaboration, which combines the LZ, XENONnT, and DARWIN experiments, aims to fully cover the WIMP parameter space down to the neutrino fog limit, becoming the ultimate dark matter effort in the search for WIMPs. XLZD will utilise a 60-80 ton liquid xenon time projection chamber, providing the immense exposure required for this challenging endeavour. Additionally, this future...
The XLZD experiment will be the largest and most sensitive direct detection dark matter search to date, demanding significant infrastructure and resources. To minimise its environmental impact, preconstruction efforts are underway to quantify, reduce, and offset emissions across the project lifecycle. This includes emissions tracking, sustainable material selection, and for the first time in a...
